Employer taking money for training but no certificates

[Melissaf95]

My contract States if I leave before 2 years I will have to pay 30£ a day for the training I've done with her- fair enough.
I done training in Jessica manicure and geleration Polish. They sent the certificates to the salon where
My boss has obviously kept them, but she hasn't given them to me as she says she don have them,
What do I do?

 

[Claire Olsen]

If you paid for your training classes of course you get your certificate! Just ask it's yours..!

 

[Melissaf95]

If you paid for your training classes of course you get your certificate! Just ask it's yours..!

She says she doesn't have them

 

[Claire Olsen]

Ask her where they are and when they would be here, it's always a good thing to have a keep in your portfolio, just keep reminding her about them and hopefully she will get her butt to it! Haha

 

[AcidPerm]

If she's charged you for the training then she should be providing you with the proof of qualification.
Has the training provider confirmed that they sent the certificates to the salon? If so, you could ask how much it would cost for replacement certificates and then tell the Salon boss to either pay this cost or find the original certificates.

 

[laurakate]

I worked somewhere that would only give you the certificates once you left and paid any moneys owed.

At the time it stressed me out.

I can see why employers do it because people are guilty for doing a runner but on the other hand to financially bind someone into a job that pays little over minimum wage is something that makes me very uncomfortable these days (I've seen the good the bad and the ugly of this industry and I just don't think it's right where effectively an employer might put someone in a bind where they can't afford to leave....like who would want someone working for them who felt captive anyway? Bad for morale all round I say!)

 

[6erardmer]

I would ring The office at Gerard and check where they were sent and ask them to resend to your home address ? She should be proud and put your certificate up .

 

[laurakate]

Gerrard International (the Jessica people) might not be able to send the certificates to anyone other than the account holder (ie your employer).

So you may not be able to just cut out the middle man and get your certificates sent directly to you but as 6erardmer says, you should be able to at least narrow down who holds the certificate. I suspect it is your employer (you may get a generic answer from GI in the name of confidentiality but it's still worth calling them).

I did my Jessica training all set up by me because my employer was bloody stingy with training and I still wanted to do it for me and my personal development. You may find that it could be cheaper (or at least logisitically better for you) to do the Jessica training again yourself rather than have your employer holding you to ransom with it. Tis definitely worth enquiring with GI.

 

[RED STAR]

My contract States if I leave before 2 years I will have to pay 30£ a day for the training I've done with her- fair enough.
I done training in Jessica manicure and geleration Polish. They sent the certificates to the salon where
My boss has obviously kept them, but she hasn't given them to me as she says she don have them,
What do I do?

If you paid for the course yourself.....why would you need to,"pay £30.00 a day back for the training?"

 

[Sammiec85]

I can understand if your self employed and you pay for training but your employed? They should be paying for this?

 

[laurakate]

I think the OP is saying the employer put her on the training.

I did my own even when employed because at the time it felt like the difference between stagnating and having the pleasure of more personal development and more variety in my day from being able to do more treatments.

 

[Melissaf95]

I can understand if your self employed and you pay for training but your employed? They should be paying for this?

My employer did pay- but because I've left before being there for 2 years she charges £30 a day as she paid me a whole day wage to go to the course

 

[laurakate]

Ah ok. That's a pretty fair system. I've known worse. I've seen girls in tears because leaving a company would cost them 3k (happened in a spa when people were given a lot of training in one go).

 

[AcidPerm]

@Melissaf95

What does it actually say in your contract? The terms might not be legally enforceable.

Also, under the Data Protection Act 1998, you can pay £10 and insist that she provides written documentation confirming you successfully completed the training.

However, I suspect that if you speak to Citizens Advice or an Employment specialist and ask them to help you draft a letter to her, she will magically produce the certificates...

 

[Melissaf95]

@Melissaf95

What does it actually say in your contract? The terms might not be legally enforceable.

Also, under the Data Protection Act 1998, you can pay £10 and insist that she provides written documentation confirming you successfully completed the training.

However, I suspect that if you speak to Citizens Advice or an Employment specialist and ask them to help you draft a letter to her, she will magically produce the certificates...

She's already taken the money out of my pay.
She said she will look for them to see if she has them

 

[laurakate]

Still sounds like she's fobbing you off. I would definitely recommend the advice that AcidPerm gives you. Sounds like you need to do something to motivate your ex employer to give you what's yours.

 

[AcidPerm]

She's already taken the money out of my pay.
She said she will look for them to see if she has them

Definitely get proper legal advice.
Employers are only allowed to deduct money from wages in very specific circumstances. She may have acted unlawfully and could be sued!

 

[BigBexMomma]

I worked somewhere that would only give you the certificates once you left and paid any moneys owed.

At the time it stressed me out.

I can see why employers do it because people are guilty for doing a runner but on the other hand to financially bind someone into a job that pays little over minimum wage is something that makes me very uncomfortable these days (I've seen the good the bad and the ugly of this industry and I just don't think it's right where effectively an employer might put someone in a bind where they can't afford to leave....like who would want someone working for them who felt captive anyway? Bad for morale all round I say!)

I am an employer and although I have never kept the training certificates I can understand why others would, especially for expensive training courses and particularly if they have lost money upskilling staff before. You would be surprised how many Therapists use employers to train up in the more expensive types of treatment and then leave and set their own business up and take all the clients! It happened to me once so I would never do it again! I also took someone from the job centre who was inexperienced but desperate to learn, we trained her up until she was at an extremely high standard and then she left just before summer (whilst I had two other staff out of a staff team of 4 on maternity) leaving me out of pocket and with numerous cancellations that I could not fulfill. Staff come ready skilled and trained or I don't employ them which is a shame but unavoidable. In this industry employees and employers just simply cannot afford to trust each other which is dreadful as I have never operated like that in all the other industries I have worked in. There are good employers and employees...we just have to find each other x x x

 

[laurakate]

I guess people in different positions get bitten in different ways. In some of the big spas I was in, training was used as a political tool. Spa girls looking after their spa mates. If they liked you it would be a world of opportunity within weeks of joining even if fresh out of college. If you had years of experience and had been with the company longer and perhaps had a bit of maturity about you and didn't bond over boozy nights out and trivial bitchings then it was often a slap in the face not to be offered training opportunities.

In a bigger spa it's not necessarily about who will do a runner and go self employed because spa clientel is niche enough to be generally reliable so that self employed therapists aren't really a threat because they are two different types of service offering different specialisms. Also in a spa they definitely get their pound of flesh from employees so although I think expecting the employee to pay back for paid training time is reasonable, I don't think it's fair to say (for example) "your three day clarins training will cost you £800 if you leave". (Bearing in mind the training is done on site and is included in the spas account with the product anyway).

Also there used to be this culture of "The therapists who we don't train in such and such product are inferior/less competent/not an 'advanced' therapist" (despite years spent in industry and general ability to get rebookings).

So yeah, having worked in two spas where training was used horribly as a political football and bullying tool, I do think that the pitfalls of it are wider than ex employees who do a runner to become self employed. A lot of people had no desire to do such thing and just wanted fair access to opportunities and not to fear not being able to pay their bills if they wanted to move on from a company.